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Advent Wednesday #4

Today my office was closed and soooooooo I had a day off. What luck! I went back and forth to different stores, finishing up my last-minute shopping. The print shop! The grocery store! The stationary store! The chocolate store! What fun! I know, a lot of people get stressed out this time of year. And,ContinueContinue reading “Advent Wednesday #4”

Advent Tuesday #4 | All is calm. All is weird.

That night there were homeless, abiding in the alleys and crevices of buildings, keeping watch over their assorted plastic grocery bags by night. And they weren’t your down-on-their-luck homeless who just need a stroke of good fortune and they’ll be back in a good job and an apartment again. No, these are the kind whoContinueContinue reading “Advent Tuesday #4 | All is calm. All is weird.”

Advent Friday #3

I was walking to get tacos for lunch yesterday with an old friend because: friends 4-ever. And also: tacos 4-ever. 4 real. A few weeks ago now, I gave a talk at the youth group where my friend volunteers. It was there that I learned that this friend, who I have known for years, wasContinueContinue reading “Advent Friday #3”

Advent Wednesday #3

At lunchtime yesterday I went to a church-hall where food was being served to people who have lodging and maybe a change of clothes but not much else. They did have a lot of Christmas cheer though, and they all greeted me warmly. One man asked if I had met his grandchildren yet. I toldContinueContinue reading “Advent Wednesday #3”

4 Unconventional Advent Actions

I went to fifteen stores on Saturday. FIFTEEN. Want to know why? Because I hadn’t done any Christmas shopping prior to that, and at this point time is of the essence! 🙂 What do I have to show for that? Well, a few blisters. But also, I was just like, “I don’t want to doContinueContinue reading “4 Unconventional Advent Actions”

A tiny poem | Love and fingerprints

“I’ll never love another woman like I love you,” he said. But this did not give her pause; for she knew that all along. You never love another person in the same way you have loved someone else. Loves are as unique as fingerprints. The one you dated before? The first one whose hand youContinueContinue reading “A tiny poem | Love and fingerprints”

Advent Tuesday #2– Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Back in high school we were instructed to make “five-year” and “ten-year” plans, and I was never any good at those, which is OK, because between five and ten years ago I consecrated myself to Jesus through Mary and effectively ditched any personal plans for myself. Does that sound terrifying? I guess it is. JumpingContinueContinue reading “Advent Tuesday #2– Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception”

Advent Monday #2

There is a line in an Advent song that sings like, “O Come, O rod of Jesse’s stem” And today’s reading is about the desert and the parched land and the steppe blooming “with abundant flowers.” But I’m just over here like, “Yeah, and I’ll bet that those were watered by our collective tears.” “MourningContinueContinue reading “Advent Monday #2”

Her last name was “Happy”

Years ago, when I was in 4-H, there was a woman who would volunteer at the weekend events we would sometimes attend. We would attend maybe once or twice a year–doing our artsy thang in the love that is northern Michigan. This woman was a senior citizen; and she shared a first-name with my motherContinueContinue reading “Her last name was “Happy””

IMPORTANT PSA

TODAY IS THE FEAST OF ST. ANDREW. HE IS TYPICALLY SHOWN WITH A CROSS IN AN “X” SHAPE BECAUSE THAT’S HOW HE WAS CRUCIFIED. (Fun fact. Once, when I was young and in college and working at my college job, a man who was probably one part lonely and one part overly confident about hisContinueContinue reading “IMPORTANT PSA”